On April 24, Fair Finance Asia (FFA) will convene a workshop with civil society organization (CSO) allies and partners to discuss and map existing and effective advocacy and campaigning initiatives that address serious human and environmental rights issues in Asia’s transition mineral mining supply chains. The workshop will also aim to identify strategic and complementary approaches, with a specific focus on the role of financial sector actors, that contribute to broader advocacies to accelerate the region’s just energy transition (JET).

Background 

In December 2024, FFA released a report, Unearthing the hidden costs: Social and environmental considerations in Asia’s transition minerals mining and supply chains, that revealed that banks based in Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are financing United States (US), European, and Asian downstream electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers who have indirect supply chain links to two nickel mines in Indonesia and one mine in the Philippines. All three mines continue to face allegations from communities around them and CSOs of serious human and environmental rights violations.  

The report shows distinct human rights and environmental impacts of transition minerals supply chains, with the most serious harms usually occurring in and around mining sites or the ‘upstream’ stage of the transition mineral supply chain. There are also serious impacts on the ground, especially on Indigenous communities, in the minerals smelting and processing stage, known as the ‘midstream’, usually because of high levels of pollution and poor environmental safeguards.  

With the projected sharp rise in investments in transition mineral mining, it’s critical that financial institutions  integrate principles of sustainable finance and JET into their policies to avoid aggravating existing injustices and inequalities.   

Read FFA’s report on transition minerals here.